1. Who are you?

My name is Matiss Ansviesulis; I am a Co-founder and a CEO of Creamfinance. The mission of Creamfinance is to make money available; this is done by providing consumer loans online in a convenient and speedy manner. To focus on prompt service delivery, we’re working towards becoming a one-click loans‘ provider to consumers globally.

2. Which services do you sell and who are your competitors?

Creamfinance is a consumer finance company that focuses on Smart Data, which is the most accurate way of measuring credit readiness that translates into fast product delivery. We want to enable borrowing money online with one simple click globally in order to fulfil customers’ need for stable and speedy service. I am proud to say that at this very moment we are among the top 3 companies worldwide for the speed and accuracy of credit scoring. Creamfinance is fully operational in 6 countries and preparing for market entry into more. Taking our Smart Data approach as well as focus on one-click loan to increase speed of service delivery, to date there are no direct competition that would be working towards the same objective as us.

3. How did you get your startup idea and how did you finance your startup?

Back when I was studying in Lancaster University’s Management School I experienced financial issues, which led me to some discussions with my long-time friend Davis Barons. My thoughts and ideas were of coursed influenced by the fact that people had difficulties getting loans due to tech crunch. The idea to start business even with a small capital seemed appealing, so I very quickly found myself writing a business plan, intending to create personal finance company that would benefit both customers and the company due to speedy service delivery.

The very beginning of business was financed by ourselves and our relatives, until we got an investment from an international venture capital fund Flint Capital, based in Silicon Valley and focusing on FinTech and mobile technologies investing across US, Israel and Europe.

4. What were the biggest challenges in starting?

First and foremost, companies are created by people and committed founders as well as employees are the foundation of one’s success. It’s been quite a challenge to internalize this, especially keeping in mind that Creamfinance operates across 6 markets.

5. What areas within FinTech do you personally find most interesting and why?

Naturally, due to the nature of our business, I am interested in online lending. With the ever-changing technology consumers’ expectations towards the service are changing as well – consumers are becoming increasingly demanding, expecting to get the service quickly, efficiently, cheaply and in a digital form. It is obvious that the lending landscape is changing, and will continue to dramatically change to provide better and faster service.  I believe we all are just at the beginning of a new era in alternative lending, and I am quite exited waiting for the day when it’s not going to be called “alternative” anymore.

6. What opportunities do you see for FinTech startups in the DACH region, and how can we help to accelerate it?

DACH region is more conservative towards changes and economies over there are highly dominated by banks. For that purpose, I see a lot of potential for P2P lending and to accelerate growth and strengthen the value of Fintech, I am very keen on partnership culture across borders.

7. What tip would you like to give FinTech entrepreneurs?

Assembling a diverse and multi-skilled team is the first and the most important task. Since Fintech is already multi-disciplinary by nature, I’d strongly advice to focus on mixing your talent pool. Make sure you pull talent from different sectors that can look at your business from all possible angles, and will be able to eliminate a number of various issues that business face, or will be facing. If you want to execute innovative ideas, you have to build a team of innovative people, who are ready to question and to give meaning for innovation.